How do I Love Thee?

When it comes to love, we all have different representations and expressions. For
some people Love is a feeling we share to connect and build a relationship to share the
things that we like together. But for Elizabeth Barrett Browning who wrote the “How I
Love Thee” which she dedicated to her husband, Robert Browning. For her Love is a
powerful force that can conquer everything in the universe. Her enduring love express
uniqueness as for her love will get better after death. This is a sonnet number 43 taken
from Sonnets from the Portuguese, a book first published in 1850.
She uses the word “thee” to establish right away as she was referring to her beloved
throughout the poem. In the first line she started with “How do I Love Thee? Let me
count the ways” it is like compiling all the reasons why she love thee defining her intense
feelings. The next lines encompass how she adores everything about him; even when she
is unable to touch or see him, she still adores him. Her words imply that her love is
intangible for it is extensive and sacred. The lines that started with “I love thee” continue
to differentiate the ways why he loves her husband unconditionally and it's something
she chooses to do with her own free will. It is a humble kind of love because it takes
humility to be affectionate and to receive affection.
In the last few lines she compares her new found passion of love from the past,
with the old grief she mourns the love that she lose. And the people whom she used to
love and cherish in her life but does not anymore and now all of her love is given only to
her husband. In her last line "I'll shall love thee better after death” saying that her love
will continue, even better after death means will love the person more passionately even
afterlife. So her love will endure beyond death, growing stronger and transcending . This
is what the love she has is like. It is all enveloping.